Story of the Sage who saw a peacock tearing out his handsome feathers with his beak and dropping them (on the ground) and making himself bald and ugly. In astonishment he asked, “Hast thou no feeling of regret?” “I have,” said the peacock, “but life is dearer to me than feathers, and these (feathers) are the enemy of my life.”

پر خود می‌کند طاوسی به دشت ** یک حکیمی رفته بود آنجا بگشت

A peacock was tearing out his feathers in the open country, where a sage had gone for a walk.

گفت طاوسا چنین پر سنی ** بی‌دریغ از بیخ چون برمی‌کنی

He said, “O peacock, how art thou tearing out such fine feathers remorselessly from the root?

خود دلت چون می‌دهد تا این حلل ** بر کنی اندازیش اندر وحل

How indeed is thy heart consenting that thou shouldst tear off these gorgeous robes and let them fall in the mud?

هر پرت را از عزیزی و پسند ** حافظان در طی مصحف می‌نهند

Those who commit the Qur’án to memory place every feather of thine, on account of its being prized and acceptable, within the folding of the (Holy) Book.

بهر تحریک هوای سودمند ** از پر تو بادبیزن می‌کنند 540

For the sake of stirring the healthful air thy feathers are used as fans.

این چه ناشکری و چه بی‌باکیست ** تو نمی‌دانی که نقاشش کیست

What ingratitude and what recklessness is this! Dost not thou know who is their decorator?

Explaining that the purity and simplicity of the tranquil soul are disturbed by thoughts, just as (when) you write or depict anything on the surface of a mirror, though you may (afterwards) obliterate it entirely, (yet) a mark and blemish will remain (on the mirror).

روی نفس مطمنه در جسد ** زخم ناخنهای فکرت می‌کشد

The face of the tranquil soul in the body suffers wounds inflicted by the nails of thought.

فکرت بد ناخن پر زهر دان ** می‌خراشد در تعمق روی جان

Know that evil thought is a poisonous nail: in (the case of) deep reflection it rends the face of the soul.

تا گشاید عقده‌ی اشکال را ** در حدث کردست زرین بیل را

In order that he (the thinker) may loose the knot of a difficulty, he has put a golden spade into ordure.